“Oh Bob, how could you?” said a friend spying this nestling amongst my edible, scented and useful greenhouse specimens. Coral Bead plant does catch the eye, and to all the world looks just as if it’s one of those market stall plant travesties sprayed with paint, glitter or bedaubed with plastic flowers, fruits or bugs. […]

You need a warm sunny greenhouse for this tropical gem, the Roselle, which for much of the year is not the most stunning looking specimen. Though the leaves are very rich in Vitamin C and often eaten as spinach and added to curries I’m not recommending it for those. Nor are the pale yellow hollyhock-like […]

A lush foliage plant for a cool greenhouse Acmella makes a cascading mound of verdant foliage with almost non-stop production of cheery yellow pom-pom flower heads. Also known as the Electric Daisy, Alphabet plant, Australian cress, Para cress, Cresson du Brezil, Hoko So and Toothache plant, Acmella oleracea was originally Spilanthese acmella before moving from […]

If you wish to enjoy the most tasty Edamame beans simply grow some in your greenhouse so you can pick these really fresh. Edamame are green beans, steamed and podded hot or cold they’re gourmet delights very popular in Japanese cuisine. They’re also nutritionally rich in Vitamin C & K, Elements Ca, Fe, Mg, P, […]

Gourmet cooks with a greenhouse will already appreciate how growing herbs in the hotter drier conditions improves their strength and flavour. Many if not most grow Basil knowing how wonderfully flavoured this is fresh compared to the modicum left after preservation. You just cannot capture the essence. Which is why cooks also need to grow […]

  Without a greenhouse this tropical climbing vegetable, Basella, is hardly worth attempting thus it’s little known in the UK though with a plethora of common names indicating worldwide popularity. Vine Spinach, Indian Spinach, Malabar Spinach, Ceylon Spinach, Gambian Spinach, Malabar Nightshade to name but a few. Originally growing wild in much of the East […]

Many greenhouse plants are poisonous so one always needs be vigilant if children visit. And particularly with seeds of the pretty Castor Oil plant, Ricinus communis, from the Euphorbia family. Though the foliage and flowers are poisonous these seeds are extremely toxic. Once known as Palma Christi the seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs, […]

Often confused are the edible Ginger (the root) of commerce and these flamboyant greenhouse ornamentals. However that’s not surprising as they’re closely related, and similar in appearance and habit. However the Kahili ginger, Hedychium gardenerium, is most definitely not edible, which is a bit unfortunate as this grows considerably larger and would make a great […]

An excellent talking point for your greenhouse or conservatory is the delightfully, well accurately, named Scurvy grass, Cochlearia officinalis. Here the clue definitely lies in the names. The spoon shaped (Cochlear in Greek) leaves deliver massive doses of Vitamin C and really can cure Scurvy (a skin disease caused by the lack of this Vitamin). […]

You need be careful with Eryngium maritinum in your greenhouse, those leathery leaves have tips sharper than holly, thus the common name. Fortunately Sea Holly does not make a large plant, just a foot or so high and across, of exceptionally beautifully hued foliage. The colour is hard to capture in photographs, less green and […]

This month is when a productive greenhouse starts getting busy. We’re sowing trays of onions and leeks and starting off onion sets, potato sets likewise (in much bigger pots!).  In the warmth of a propagator extra early batches of tender crops can have been sown already though often surpassed by batches sown now of: cucumbers, […]